I see Margaret [Thatcher] regularly. She's still a fighter; she still thinks things should change and there's work to be done. My son William has to remind me she's an old woman. I still think of her fighting, striding towards me like a Sherman tank. I still think she's a giant.

My greatest hatred in life is prejudice.

It's difficult for our generation. I remember a golliwog on the Robertson's jam jars and I didn't look upon it as a black golliwog. I looked at it as a golliwog and I liked him and I wanted to eat jam because of him. It was only years later that someone much, much cleverer than myself told me: "Jeffrey, it's black."

Mary is certainly fragrant, among many other qualities. I look at her and I think: "How did she end up with me? How could she be so silly?" She still is remarkably beautiful, but as a young woman she was stunning. People would cross the room to talk to her and then they would discover she was very bright, too. A lot of men couldn't handle that.

There's still a residue of snobbery in England. We live in a far more meritocratic society than we used to, thank goodness, but the worst [snobs] are pseudo-aristocrats who go round posing as the son of a duke or an earl.

Bankruptcy is very tough. I have tremendous sympathy with people who have spent their lives building up a nest egg to retire on only to find they're the people most harmed by what's going on.

No one insults me on the street. The British public is much more generous that the press gives it credit for. I came back from holiday recently to 6,000 emails. Not one was unkind.

It bothered me when they called me "the disgraced peer". It wasn't very nice.

I keep in touch with two murderers from my time in prison. Fletch murdered the paedophile who abused him from the age of six to 16. Billy I met in Belmarsh and he was one of the brightest guys I'd ever met, but he was totally uneducated. I said: "Billy, you let me know whatever you need - books, anything." I attended his BA ceremony 18 months ago. He's currently doing his MA and talking about a PhD. He's become an expert on the BBC and media studies.

The nicest thing about my time in prison was how loyal my friends remained. For our Christmas party that year, only six people out of 400 didn't come.

It was my idea to have an annual Krug and shepherd's pie Christmas party. It's a weird combination. My wife disapproved - she thought it should be different every year. Then a lot of people started saying: "But I don't get shepherd's pie on any other day of the year."

I'm so plebby. My favourite meal would be a really good tomato soup followed by spaghetti Bolognese. I don't like truffles, caviar or champagne. I tend not to like the things that cost money.

We are all EH Shepard characters. I am Tigger. You can stand on my tail but I'll keep jumping. Margaret Thatcher is Owl.

Every human being on earth would do things differently if they lived their life again.